Olympic Drinks Stations success

Having proven itself in previous London Marathons, the Trilogiq system of tubes and brackets was an obvious choice for the building of the drinking stations for London Marathons 2012.

Staging the Olympic road races in the heart of London was always going to present a complex logistical challenge but, fortunately, that’s exactly what the Tube and Bracket team love most.

When the London 2012 organising committee approached them to design, build and install the drinking stations, they rose to the challenge without hesitation. Each station had to be 4 metres long, and include a counter for the athletes’ drinks, the trackside hoarding (carrying then London 2012 branding) and the country flag of each competitor so that each runner could identify their personal station. The key challenge was to design the stations in such a way that all 284 of them could be installed within a six hour window before the race, and taken down in a four-hour window afterwards.

Given the tight installation window, Tube and Bracket designed the stations to be part-assembled at their base in Banbury, then transported on specially designed Tube and Bracket mobile racks to the city. With no margin for error, the build team rehearsed the entire installation to get timing and configuration spot-on.

On race day, the 8 mile marathon route was closed to traffic at 4am, at which point the team could gain first access to begin the installation. With only six hours to race start, the team had to work with extreme precision and focus. Whilst every Olympic competing country was able to enter an athlete for the Marathon, it was not until the morning of the race itself that individual competitors were confirmed to run. The correct country names and corresponding flags had to be and positioned in alphabetical order. The team completed the installation in perfect time.

Races

Womens Marathon

Men’s Marathon

Walking Races

Paralympic Marathon

Key Stats

284 stations

Each station 4m long

6-hour window for installation

4-hour window for break-down

The setup and breakdown ran like clockwork, and the stations were very well received. As well as being involved in a such a triumphant event as the 2012 Olympics, the team also had the unheard-of experience of driving through empty London Streets!